Viewpoint: NAPA Safety Solutions

of ships in ports once and that digital technology helps make it available where it is needed.

This is only one way in which data exchange between ship and shore can support safer and more sustainable shipping. For example, we already see maritime pioneers using cloud-based platforms to facilitate collaboration between seafarers on board and fleet operations centres on shore. This enables these teams to monitor a wide range of operational and safety parameters, plan, and optimise operations to the fullest to reduce emissions, without compromising safety.

We believe that the capacity to collect the right data, share it and use it smartly, will be one of the trends that will define 2023. The need for data becomes more pressing as reporting requirements increase, but this is also an opportunity to turn obligation into opportunity.

In the digital era, ports and shipping companies can fully use information that was previously lost on paper, or hidden in spreadsheets and harness it to find new insights and efficiencies, create new collaborative models, and simulate different scenarios for their lowcarbon future.

Evaluating options

Data collection obligations defined under the IMO’s Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII), which requires ships to improve their energy efficiency, start this year – even though the regulation is still undergoing fine tuning by MEPC. Since 1 January, it has become mandatory for ships to calculate their attained Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI) to measure their energy efficiency and to initiate the collection of data for the reporting of their annual CII rating. The first annual reporting will be completed in 2023, with the first CII ratings given in 2024.

As a wide range of operational measures, clean technologies and fuel options are emerging to help shipowners achieve and maintain high ratings, the industry seeks to make the right choices. However, there won’t be a “one size fits all” solution for all fleets and vessel types. Being able to predict the performance of new solutions and their operational and safety impacts will be essential to help companies progress with confidence.

The latest generation of digital tools can model, simulate, and predict the impact of different measures. NAPA’s CII Simulator, for example, uses data on a vessel’s past and current routes and performance to predict its CII rating, showing the impact of each voyage on the overall result. The platform can simulate the impact of different measures and operational profiles, such as using weather routing, slow steaming, hull cleaning, or installing energy saving devices, on the vessel’s CII rating at the end of the year.

Optimising arrival times

The importance of digital technology to deliver “just in time” arrivals is well established, but this isn’t the only way in which it can help reduce emissions in the last mile of a vessel’s journey.

NAPA is co-ordinating a collaborative project that tackles the wasteful practice of “sail fast then wait” (SFTW), which sees ships sailing at speed across oceans only to wait at anchorage outside ports.

Combining an innovative contractual framework and state-ofthe-art digital technology, the Blue Visby Solution optimises arrivals, enabling vessels to reduce their speed – and emissions – without impacting their commercial performance.

In a nutshell, the different parties involved in a voyage agree to a dynamic “queuing system”, where the Blue Visby algorithms help optimise and stagger arrival times for groups of vessels travelling to the same port.

Taking into consideration parameters such as the performance and characteristics of each vessel, port congestion at destination, and weather conditions, the Blue Visby algorithm provides an optimal target arrival time for each vessel, while keeping their order of arrival as if they had sailed independently without the solution. This enables vessels to slow down and still arrive one after the other, which reduces unnecessary waiting times outside ports.

By tackling SFTW, the Blue Visby solution will help reduce emissions for maritime journeys by 15% on average. If applied globally, the solution has the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of the global shipping fleet by more than 60 million tonnes of CO2 per year – which is larger than the total emissions of an entire country like Norway.

Crucially, the project addresses industry concerns about the sharing of sensitive information, as the algorithms that assign a target arrival time to each vessel only require minimal data input from the companies, in addition to publicly available AIS data.

Furthermore, the anticipated 15% reduction in emissions from the wet and dry bulk fleets will make a tangible difference for the environment without impacting commercial viability, as the speed reduction would be as little as one knot on average.